Youth Ambassador Program

A cornerstone of IIGH’s multi-year partnership with Durex is our Youth Ambassadors program, composed of select graduates from the Sexual Rights for Social Change Academy. Over the course of a rolling 12 month term, Youth Ambassadors engage in a wide variety of projects aimed at improving the discourse around sexual health, rights, and pleasure for all young people globally. 

Youth Ambassadors play an important outward facing role, by helping to amplify youth voices in digital spaces, advancing evidence-based information on sexual health and rights through compelling content tailored for young people. They additionally serve to guide our strategies internally, ensuring that young people’s voices and priorities are adequately reflected in all that we do. They also engage in research opportunities with IIGH partners and join us as representatives of the initiative and of the Institute at global health fora and IIGH-hosted events. We are continuing to grow our Youth Ambassador cohort, with new students joining in the fall of 2025 

The IIGH Youth Ambassador program based in the United States works closely with a similarly constructed program run out of University of São Paulo (USP), in Brazil. Youth Ambassadors from USP and USC have opportunities throughout the year to interact and learn from one another. Our ambition is to continue to grow towards a multi-country, multi-lingual cohort of young people who catalyze the next generation of sexual health, rights, and pleasure advocates globally. 

You can follow along with our Youth Ambassadors and watch their digital content via our TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube!

IIGH Youth Ambassador 2025 – 2026 Cohort

Aleeyaa Alam (she/her)

Aleeyaa Alam is a student at USC studying Global Health with a minor in Fashion and is pursuing her MPH through the Progressive Degree Program. She is passionate about bridging the gap between the arts and health, applying public health concepts of sustainability and equity to the fashion industry.

Maya Ueoku (she/her)

Maya Ueoku is a student at USC studying Global Health on the pre-dental track and is passionate about sexual health and rights advocacy. She serves as a Youth Ambassador for IIGH, where she has gained hands-on experience as a sexual rights advocate and built meaningful relationships in the field.

Rahinatou Sawadogo (she/her)

Rahinatou Sawadogo is a student at USC studying Biopharmaceutical Science on the pre-med track and is passionate about advancing skincare solutions for melanin-rich populations. She is actively involved in research developing therapeutic skincare products that address skin diseases prevalent among Black communities.

Timothy Liu (he/him)

Timothy Liu is a student at USC studying Global Health and is passionate about advancing sexual health education and advocacy among young people. As a queer Taiwanese American who lacked comprehensive sexual health education growing up, he is motivated to ensure others have access to the knowledge and resources they need, and aspires to run a teen clinic serving his community.

Welela Solomon (she/her)

Welela Solomon is a student at USC studying Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and is passionate about the intersections of race, mental health, and sexual and reproductive health. She serves on the Partners in Health Engage Chapter, where she engages in critical thinking and youth advocacy on global health issues, and works as a data analyst at the Marine Biodiversity Center.

Lila Aspin (she/her)

Lila Aspin is a student at USC majoring in Public Policy with minors in Legal Studies and Gender & Social Justice and is passionate about the intersection of social justice, sustainability, and health equity. She is committed to advancing sexual and reproductive rights through inclusive policy and grassroots organizing, with advocacy focused on reproductive justice and LGBTQIA+ rights.

Andrea Sia (she/her)

Andrea Sia is a student at USC studying Global Health and is passionate about women's health, health education, and health equity. She currently mentors middle school girls through USC WYSE, teaching sexual and reproductive health education, and works as an EMT in the Orlando area while contributing to policy research focused on U.S. health programs.

Ruby Perlman (she/her)

Ruby Perlman is pursuing a Master's in Public Diplomacy and is passionate about improving access to sexual health information. She serves as Director of Activities for USC's Society of Public Diplomats, with experience in AI-marketing and content strategy.

Ayan Patel (he/him)

Ayan Patel is a student at USC studying Global Health and is passionate about studying infectious diseases and advancing healthcare literacy and equality around the world. He first became interested in Global Health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Karen Li (she/her)

Karen Li is a student at USC studying Human Development and Aging and is passionate about medical humanities, community engagement, and advocacy for gender equity issues. She serves as Co-Executive Director of the Student Assembly for Gender Empowerment and previously led Take Back the Night programming as Director of Advocacy.

Youth Ambassador Graduates

Spotlight on Recent Projects

Sexual Rights for Social Change Academy Mentors

The 2025 U.S. Sexual Rights for Social Change Academy saw the addition of three exceptional fellowship mentors. Youth Ambassadors Rumaisa Islam, Aleeyaa Alam, and Jaylee Cortes all brought a wealth of experience in content creation and sexual health and rights messaging to the cohort. Mentors met weekly with Fellows to guide their video creation process, advising on key communications pieces like calls to action, audience, and harnessing emotion. Said Jaylee on her experience, “One of the most surprising things I learned was just how powerful and effective youth-led advocacy can be when it’s supported by the right tools and community. As a mentor […] I ended up learning just as much from [the students’] lived experiences, perspectives, and passion. Seeing how quickly they connected policy concepts to their own realities reminded me that you don’t need decades of experience to make an impact.” 

New Collaborations with IIGH Partners

Over the past year, the Initiative has taken on select projects, bringing in Youth Ambassadors, to support the efforts of IIGH partners working towards shared goals to advance sexual health and rights across the globe. With the Kenya Legal & Ethical Issues Network on HIV and AIDS (KELIN), Rahinatou Sawadogo, Welela Solomon, Rumaisa Islam, and Jada Cobbett worked in teams of two to create visually appealing and easily digestible issue briefs covering new health legislation in Kenya (above). These briefs are supporting community understanding of new laws and policies and how they can best navigate these changes for their own health. Rahinatou and Rumaisa continued on to work with IIGH and the Sexual Rights Initiative (SRI), conducting an extensive review of UN resolutions and outcome documents to understand how terminology around sexual rights and gender has evolved in recent years. This work is ongoing, and will support the efforts of both SRI and partners going forward. 

Summit of the Future / UNGA 79

Left: Youth Ambassadors at an official side event at UN HQ. Center: The Summit of the Future Opening Ceremony. Right: Youth Ambassadors and IIGH staff outside of UN HQ. 

Ahead of the 79th General Assembly, a delegation of IIGH faculty, staff and Youth Ambassadors participated in the Summit of the Future, a once in a generation gathering intended to revitalize multilateralism and turbocharge the 2030 Agenda. At the two Action Days, Youth Ambassadors from IIGH and the University of São Paulo came together and engaged alongside other young people from NGOs, the private sector, and civil society from around the world, participating in official Summit of the Future sessions and side events in and around the UN. At both the official sessions and other high-level events our delegation attended, Youth Ambassadors tracked the presence (or absence) of sexual rights and health topics, including in the three agreements borne from the Summit: the Pact for the Future, the Declaration on Future Generations, and the Global Digital Compact. In the coming months, IIGH and Youth Ambassadors will continue to work alongside our partners to ensure that young people’s sexual health and rights are included in the implementation processes that follow the Summit.  

Highlights included participation in the annual PMNCH Accountability Breakfast, attending the kickoff of Beijing+30 hosted by UN Women, and the successful completion of our co-hosted event with Reckitt, “Securing Digital Futures for Young People’s Sexual Health and Rights” where Youth Ambassadors spoke alongside a range of experts and explored the potential for social media as a tool for furthering SRHR education. 

You can read blog posts penned by the Youth Ambassadors reflecting on their Summit of the Future experience, here. In addition, check out the below highlight reel that features some of the mini-interviews conducted by Youth Ambassadors in attendance at the Summit, wherein they explored perspectives on young people’s sexual and reproductive health and rights with Action Day speakers and participants.

@sexualrightsacademy

At the Summit of the Future in NYC last month, IIGH and USP Youth Ambassadors explored perspectives on young people’s sexual and reproductive health and rights. We need to ensure youth perspectives remain at the forefront of the Pact for the Future implementation process. Where else would you like to see these conversations happening? #sexualrightsacademy #OurCommonFuture @renatakochalvarenga @Nadya Okamoto @kavanga_rivaldo

♬ Deep Understanding – Dominic DiTanna

25th International AIDS Conference in Munich, Germany

Left: USC Youth Ambassadors at the International AIDS Conference. Center: USP Professor Vera Paiva with USC Youth Ambassadors at the Global Village. Right: USP and USC Youth Ambassadors in Munich. 

In July 2024, a delegation of Youth Ambassadors, along with IIGH staff, faculty, and colleagues working with us on the Durex initiative from the University of São Paulo, successfully engaged with a wide range of partners both new and old at the 2024 International AIDS Conference in Munich, Germany.

In the Global Village, Ambassadors interviewed a range of young people, from HIV activists to researchers from every corner of the globe who graciously lent their insights to how we can drive positive change for the full realization of sexual health and rights for all young people globally. Insights gathered from these interviews will be used to shape a digital toolkit currently in progress, which will reach young people with timely messaging and basic tools on how to engage on HIV in digital spaces. Finally, each Ambassador in attendance chose to investigate a particular topic of interest within the sphere of HIV activism. You can read their blog posts outlining their experience and findings here.

You check out the Ambassadors’ day in the life reels on our Instagram for a peek at the International AIDS Conference experience!